MIGRATION NARRATIVES: HOW TO DESIGN A COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE A MORE NUANCED PUBLIC OPINION ON MIGRATION
EPIC 2ND WEBINAR ON FRIDAY, 22 OCTOBER 2021
11:00 A.M. CEST (Brussels, Berlin, Rome) / 10:00 A.M. BST (London) / 12:00 P.M. EEST (Athens)
Link to register : https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FCqfojN4T0-PRWHo8ddV4A
SPEAKERS:
Daura Vera, from Juntas En la misma dirección (Togethers in the same direction), will present this initiative and its activities, including the Tenerife Anti-rumors Strategy in Spain.
Agata de Latour, Intercultural and Language Trainer will present the case example of the ‘Migrant’scène’ festival in France organised by La Cimade and will address the current highly polarised debate about the crisis at the Polish Belarus border and how the media, the government, NGOs, and CSO shape different communication campaigns about it.
Dina Moreira, Office project and coordinator of the Municipality of Amadora, will present the Do not feed the rumour and the Rumourless Cities Tranfer Network, implemented by the municipality of Amadora.
Madeleina Kay, Social Media Campaigner at the Media Diversity Institute, will present the Get The Trolls Out project to tackling hate-speech and disinformation targeting religious minorities in European media and online.
MODERATOR:
Patricia Martinez, Project Manager, AEIDL
Context and objectives of the webinar:
The socio-economic integration of people of migrant origin, refugees and asylum seekers are fundamental to guarantee their human rights and community cohesion. It is also beneficial for the receiving countries that can boost their economic performance, access to new markets and products, address skills gaps and shortages, or reduce declining demographics.
However, the dehumanized image that some media and politicians portray about people on the move has led to the development of a poor public image of migrants, which makes their long-term integration in their new country more challenging. To deconstruct wrong stereotypes, misperceptions and even racism and hate speech, it is necessary to offer citizens a nuanced narrative about migration that is both evidence-based and brings the voices of the migrants into that debate.
Narratives matter because they influence the way people think and can thus lead to certain actions. If people are led to think a certain group in society is threatening, they will tend to support the security argument to prevent that group from harming them, even if such measures are highly disproportionate and reduce that target group to a potential danger. This is why we must contribute to underline that migration is also a natural phenomenon, that our societies have been built in diversity and that this heritage contributes to their nurturing development.
In this context, the EPIC project aims at identifying good practices and developing local communication campaigns in the cities of the partners to highlight the benefits of local integration, building positive narratives and counteracting negative stereotypes towards migrants’ communities in their territories. The campaigns will be launched during the last quarter of 2021 and will last at least one year.
In recent years, there has been an increase in initiatives that share the same goal. Pioneering work in this aspect has been done by the Council of Europe with their No Hate Speech Campaign which has worked systematically, since 2011, across 47 members ’states of the Council of Europe, or the Anti-Rumours strategy, composed of a number of elements, including the designing and implementing anti-rumour campaigns to raise awareness, including by creating and disseminating new tools and resources, both creative and rigorous. Many other public institutions, international organisations, NGOs and the Civil Society across Europe have also been carrying out similar initiatives.
The objective of this webinar is to learn from past and current campaigns promoters their lessons learned and recommendations to design, implement and monitor Alternative or Counter Narrative campaigns aiming at overcoming wrong stereotypes and prejudices against migrants.
The identification of good practices will support the further development of the EPIC local campaigns and allow the rest of actors participating in the webinar to benefit from this transfer of knowledge.
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